Chicks and Roosters...part 2

[MUFFYCAT]

Good morning all!
Nice to see you Grim. Sorry you didn't like CSR, I've never been there.
As Tricia said I'm a big Poly fan.

Susan, I'm sorry about Oreo. Losing a beloved pet is so hard.

 

[Sthronds]

Good morning.

Thanks for your kind words. I'm doing fine, it's just going to take a while to stop looking for her and missing her. I was pretty attached.

I'd like to know why Grim didn't like CSR too. It was next on my list of the moderates!

 

[Grumpy's Wife]

Happy Hump Day.

Is it just me or is the week flying by?

I've got lots of things to return today. So not a fun shopping day just a get all this stuff out of the trunk kind of day.

 

[DisneyMommyMichelle]

Morning! Rough night last night! I was up until 530 this morning and back up again at 7, 30 mimutes later than I should have been up! Yikes!

 

[Sthronds]

Good Morning!

Sorry you had a rough night Michelle. Were you up with one of the babies?

Have fun returning things! Maybe you'll find something else while you are at it!

 

[Grumpy's Wife]

Have fun returning things! Maybe you'll find something else while you are at it!

You know I did. I found these cute salad plates sort of like a zebra print at Marshall's. No I didn't need them but bought them anyway. Right next door is Target so a basket of I don't know what later and I'm home.

Michelle I hope the kids aren't sick. What kept you up so long?

 

[grimley1968]

This was our third time staying at the Poly. We didn't get Samoa like we wanted, but did get Fiji, which has terrific views and is fairly close to the GCH. Not as convenient as Samoa though, in my opinion.

My main thing I disliked about CSR was the extreme walking to get to anywhere, whether it was to the Dig Site Pool, to any form of snack bar or food court, etc. I've read posts by people who like the CSR that there are plenty of those golf carts being driven around by CM's, and that they're happy to give you a lift. In our over 3 days at the CSR, we only saw one family being given a ride, and they seemed dressed up to go to a character breakfast somewhere. We were never offered a lift.

Also, the whole convention atmosphere of the front of the resort really kind of turned us off. That aspect didn't feel "Disney" to us. We went to try to eat at the Pepper Market once, and saw that there was a solid 20-30 minute wait just to get a table in the place, because an entire convention being held at CSR let out for lunch at that time. There we were, in our shorts, t-shirts, etc. getting ready to go to the parks, surrounded by about 300 or so conventioneers wearing their business clothes, laptops, PDA's, etc. Sorry, that's just not a very "vacationy" feel to me. We walked out, took a bus to MK, and ate hot dogs at Casey's.

I do have to say this, though: the Dig Site Pool is better than the Volcano Pool at the Poly. There it is out in the open. I said it. It's true, though. The water temperature was better controlled than the Poly. There is tons more space for swimming than the Volcano pool. The slide is really cool at CSR, since it's a long one, and you go under a leopard that "spits" water on you as you go under it. It has an attached playground, which has a 2nd-floor Mayan-style decorative "room" that is built into the Chichen Itza-looking pyramid. Kids can exit that room by riding a covered slide down to the ground. The playground also had a large sand pit and several swings, etc. The hot tub was large and hot (the Poly has no hot tub). The Dig Site also had a snack bar built next to the pool bar, which most of the Deluxes don't have (except for Beach Club/Yacht Club). Unfortunately, that is the only place we were ever able to buy food at CSR, since it was just a killer walk/wait at the Pepper Market. There was a nice kiddie pool with some water features to play with.

Finally, the rooms at the CSR were ok, but nothing great. Sort of like staying in a Holiday Inn, to be honest. Each building has an outdoor hallway to get to the rooms. That meant we couldn't keep our curtains open without people just walking right by and seeing everything. That meant our room was almost constantly dark, which is depressing. In the Deluxes, you normally have some sort of balcony or patio, and indoor hallways to rooms. Both of these things mean you can normally leave drapes wide open in the daytime to let light in. It seemed like a minor thing when I was booking this, but became a major issue for us after staying at the Poly first. Those balconies are also useful for air drying wet swim clothes. It was a real chore trying to keep our wet clothes separate from the dry clothes in our CSR room, especially if we needed to take a shower (the drying line is in the shower).

If there were any rooms at CSR that were either directly next to the Dig Site Pool or to El Centro (the lobby/food court area), and/or if there was some sort of on-demand golf cart system to avoid the quarter to half-mile walks between some of these places, we would have liked CSR a lot more. As it was, though, I hated wearing ourselves out just walking to the pool or to El Centro before we ever even got to a park. Yes, you can take park buses around within the resort, but it's still a hike just to get to one of the four bus stops, and then you have to wait for a bus to come by.

Our next time, I really am interested in the FW cabins. FW is also huge, but at least there you can park your car right outside your cabin door, and you can rent a golf cart to get around within the resort. Unfortunately, it doesn't have a killer pool like CSR. But the cabins do sleep more than 3 people comfortably (we four were pretty cramped in our beds at CSR).

I have other things I could say, but I'd better end this for now.

 

[Grumpy's Wife]

Grim thanks for your honest opinion on CRS. That's exactly what I want to hear when I'm deciding where to stay. My sister stayed there on their last trip and she also said it was much to convention-y (new word of the day) for her.

 

[Sthronds]

Hmm, good thoughts Grim. I stayed at CBR last time and it was huge like that. It was a good 10-15 minute walk to the food court and main pool. I think all the mods have the outdoor entrance. It doesn't bother me too much. Of the two mods I've stayed at I prefer POR.

 

[Grumpy's Wife]

Good morning everyone.

It's almost Friday. Colin has his last regular season baseball game tonight then Saturday starts the tournament. He doesn't care for basketball so we'll have a few months off before we start up again.

I'm going to Walmart today. I wonder how much "not needed" items will somehow find it's way into my basket.

 

[MUFFYCAT]

Good morning all

Grim thanks for the review of CSR. I don't think I'd like it with some of the reasons you stated.
I do agree with you on the Volcano pool. To me it's too small and can get very crowded.

Tricia, have fun at Walmart! Can you pick me up some contact lens solution?

Michelle, I give you so much credit having 3 small kids/babies.

Susan, how ya doing?

 

[Sthronds]

Good morning.

It's supposed to be a hot one here today. It's our annual October heatwave.

I'm suffering from allergies right now. I think the smoke from the So. Cal fires is blowing in a bit. Yuck.

 

[grimley1968]

Good morning all

Grim thanks for the review of CSR. I don't think I'd like it with some of the reasons you stated.
I do agree with you on the Volcano pool. To me it's too small and can get very crowded.

I've actually never felt like the Volcano pool was all that crowded, but then we go usually in September and October, so crowds overall aren't that bad. My biggest problem with the Poly pool is that they don't seem to have a very effective water heater there, compared to other resorts, especially CSR. Even as hot as it was in Orlando last week, the Volcano pool was kind of chilly. We couldn't stay in it more than 10 minutes at a time before our daughters' lips would start turning blue, etc. The slide at the Volcano pool is still awesome, though, especially after dark. Unfortunately, they shut down the slide promptly at 8 each evening. But then they did the same at the Dig Site pool.

One thing the Poly has just about every other resort beat is in its view of Wishes by the poolside. We love being out at the pool at about 9 PM, then watching Wishes from the beach, along with the water pageant, etc. It's a very relaxing experience after a long day at the parks.

 

[DisneyMommyMichelle]

awww too bad you didn't like the CSR! It's our fave resort
We always request a room right by the quiet pool and near the spa (I get my eyebrows done there each time!) and that's a mid walk between the main hall and the pool.

I agree the pool rocks there it's our total fave and we just love the romantic atmosphere of the buildings. (we're also fans of moving to Mexico..so it could just be our tastes) There is one courtyard that has several table and chair sets in the center of a block of rooms and we always love to sit and unwind with a drink, UNO and the kids play in the little grassy area there.

Yes, it is quite a busy resort with the convention people, but we are usually out of there and eat in the parks for almost all our meal unless something went wrong with our schedule hahaha! So the several times we did do the food court it was really busy, but in the end the food was worth the wait! (for us, the kids not so much! hahahah!).

We're fans of the Pop, so rooms are rooms to us, but yes agreed that they do have that Holiday Inn feel I guess I do find them bigger than some rooms at the Yacht club though. (The trundle bed in the Yacht rooms make it seem so small).

My negative about the CSR is the bus system. It seems to get to the parks it does take longer than we ever wait at the POP and of course Y&B since we can walk there! hahah!!

All in all it's my first loved resort. Nothing more romantic than a midnight stroll hand in hand around the lagoon it's lit up beautifully. (ahh my honeymoon before kids!!!)

 

[grimley1968]

My negative about the CSR is the bus system. It seems to get to the parks it does take longer than we ever wait at the POP and of course Y&B since we can walk there! hahah!!

Actually, I kind of liked the bus system at CSR. Indeed, it is sometimes the only reasonable way to get from one part of CSR to another (unless you drive within the resort, which we did sometimes). When going to parks, I felt like the buses were more frequent and quicker than if you catch a bus at most Deluxe resorts. At the Deluxe resorts, it's true there are non-bus means of getting to one or two parks, but it seems like Disney neglects bus service to other parks at times. For instance, we waited more than 45 minutes one day at the Poly for a Hollywood Studios bus. In the meantime we saw three Animal Kingdom buses and two Downtown Disney buses (there are no MK buses from there and I don't think any EPCOT buses since the EPCOT monorail is next door at the TTC). In retrospect it would have been far faster for us to just drive to the Studios from the Poly.

The only real problem I had with the bus service at CSR was that that was the only choice, unless you drive yourself. That would get tiresome to me for a full week's stay. For three nights, though, it wasn't so bad.

I don't think we ever waited initially more than 10 minutes for a bus. We were in the Casitas 5 building, so we were closest to Bus Stop 2. We had one or two more stops to make within the resort before heading out to the parks, but those stops didn't take more than a couple minutes each, often because there wasn't anyone there.

For this busing reason, I have trouble with the fact that Disney charges Deluxe pricing for Animal Kingdom Lodge. To me, transportation is the biggest difference between staying at a moderate versus a deluxe, and AKL has buses to everywhere, just like the moderates. I've stayed at WL (almost identical to AKL) a few times. The rooms are essentially the same there as at the moderates, except WL and AKL rooms have a balcony or patio. I don't mind paying Deluxe pricing for WL (if I can ever afford it again), since it at least has a boat to MK, and also over to Fort Wilderness. We use those boats for everything they're worth.

 

[DisneyMommyMichelle]

but it seems like Disney neglects bus service to other parks at times.

Totally agree with this! I noticed this at our Yacht club stay! That's why we walked everywhere or did the boat thing and if we wanted to go to AK we went on the boat to MGM and hopped the bus there. It was more complicated, but less sitting around We like to always be on the go!

We're the family that if the line is too long for MK, we hop the one to Epcot and monorail over

 

[Sthronds]

Happy Friday!

Anyone have any big plans? I've got to go to Walmart, I'm out of shampoo. I also have to get some candy for some treat boxes I bought for my co-workers. I was told yesterday that we are all supposed to be dressing like witches for Halloween. I don't particularly want to dress like a witch so I'm thinking I could wear a frilly dress with a tiara and be Glenda the Good Witch. Of course I haven't had a frilly dress for a really long time so I'd have to find something. I do have a tiara though!

 

[grimley1968]

Happy Friday!

Anyone have any big plans? I've got to go to Walmart, I'm out of shampoo. I also have to get some candy for some treat boxes I bought for my co-workers. I was told yesterday that we are all supposed to be dressing like witches for Halloween. I don't particularly want to dress like a witch so I'm thinking I could wear a frilly dress with a tiara and be Glenda the Good Witch. Of course I haven't had a frilly dress for a really long time so I'd have to find something. I do have a tiara though!

Be a Stevie Nicks sort of witch, with the loose, flowing garments and with the scarves fastened to your fingers in whatever way Stevie does that. Blast out the Fleetwood Mac while dressed this way, so people get it.

 

[DisneyMommyMichelle]

Hiya everyone i'm exhausted! I was up until 5 this morning working on some custom orders and then slept in until 7pm! Believe me I was tempted to pop in a movie, give the baby a bottle and go back to bed for another 2 hours! hahahaa!!

Oh well husband is on his way home for a quick lunch, maybe I can catch a cat-nap!

 

[Grumpy's Wife]

Good morning.

I hope you all enjoyed your weekend. We actually have a taste of what fall is like around here. It's a little chilly in the mornings but gets hot by around 10:00. It's a start I guess. Eventually we will have cool days the whole day through. It might take until December to get like that but at least we know it's come.